A Dead Language

Benjamin Franklin Pinkerton — the faithless young naval lieutenant who abandons Madam Butterfly — was glimpsed fleetingly in Peter Rushforths previous novel, 'Pinkertons Sister'. Now Ben steps out of the shadows and into the center of the stage, a young man haunted by the desolation of his boyhood years, unable to show or respond to love. Once again, in his mastery of language, his humor, his extraordinary imagination, and his superb sense of time and place, Peter Rushforth has given the world another masterpiece, ranking alongside, or surpassing, his earlier triumphs.